1-18-24 Phoenix Suns Practice Media Availability: Frank Vogel and Grayson Allen

1-18-24 Phoenix Suns Practice Media Availability: Frank Vogel and Grayson Allen

Uh I just want to start today by offering my my condolences uh on the passing of Dean Movic um a sad loss for uh for our whole league but in particular for for Dean’s family I want to offer our thoughts and prayers our condolences and for the

Golden State family as well um it’s just a very difficult thing and uh he was he was beloved uh by I didn’t know him directly but I know a lot of people that have have known him and uh just a really positive person and um you know his his loss is being

Felt League wide uh questions Frank you um have talked before about just random running ran into J boie in elevator one time diday before he join you guys yeah so I I had two different uh conversations with Grayson um actually I don’t think I actually spoke to him directly in

Milwaukee but when I was out in each of my sabatical years after Orlando and after La I visited different teams and um you know the first time I met him was when I was visiting Quinn Snyder in Utah and um you know Grace and I were having

Breakfast together at the same time so you know introduce myself told him I’m a fan of his game and um so got to spend a little bit of time with him there and then uh and I saw him uh briefly when uh when I visited the Bucks uh and Coach

Buer uh last last so those are two times I met him before com here when there’s a player that might have like a question reputation whether it’s legit or not out to play to co or been around in the past they are uh I didn’t in this this case I

Mean sometimes you do but um you know I didn’t I never felt that with Grayson I felt like he’s just a competitor and um you know everything I’ve seen since then has shows me that that that is all in his past you know he’s just a guy that’s

Going out there and and playing clean and playing hard you know so that’s what we’ve seen with him and then what one last thing what what you said the other night that he’s surpass your expectations what were your expectations withan good role player you know guy can

Shoot the basketball guard some um you know High few guy you know but he’s just all of that it’s been just a notch or two above you know what we expected be player in the league for a long time just gota put in the work yeah I mean I think his the credit

To him is that his game is speaking for itself you know it’s it’s not about anything other than that you know he’s just become a hell of a basketball player that just comes from basically new product is a lot of those guys have longevity coming from that institution

Of Brotherhood but not necessarily as as Superstars coming out of maybe like one talk like Devin Jay all that guys got like yeah there’s some you know there’s a Duke element to it I’m sure you know um going back to the lat iner days and you know those teams you know everybody

Loved they love to hate them uh but I think that’s just part of it coach Kevin was telling us about the conversations that he had with you last summer kind of offering himself up to be a lock down Defender what were those conversations kind of like hearing that from a guy

Who’s obviously top offensive player yeah it’s uh just like he said it you know um you know he said it you don’t have to try to hide me on uh weaker weaker offensive players um you know that I can I I want that challenge you know regarding the other team’s top

Guy you know my response is always well you know we’ll manage certain games to try to save your leg some and you know uh you know save some of those situations for the fourth quarter you know when we need need it most um but he’s always been willing to take uh

Whatever matchup uh we we offered him and he’s even even asked to be on certain guys to help slow slow guys down you know so um you know that’s a a real credit to him as a competitor and as a winner and a couple of keeping things

How is BU progressing and also Damien I know you said it would be kind of before the end of the season but is there any upd yeah Daman is still the ways away um and um we’re still hopeful to get him back you know before the end of the

Season and uh and B is going to be out out tomorrow won’t travel with us but uh you know still don’t feel like it’s long term think like always off yeah I mean which just uh every every every small success throughout the NBA season is a confidence Builder no matter what you’re

Your guys have done collectively in their careers uh each group has to has to feel those successes together you know you know this this roster of of players um our coaching staff all of us working together for the first time you know um a big success like that like 22

Point quarter comeback you know was a huge confidence boost for uh you know for what we can what we can do and um but I think it just stacks on top of what we’ve done over the last two weeks you know we feel really good about the

Direction our team is going and you know that just stacks on top of it SE the time together kind of paying off I guess little time absolutely you know it’s uh we’re growing every day you know even from the film you know the first three quarters you know which we watched that

Too we didn’t just watch it come back today uh we we could have been better to not get down 22 uh but also you know the the resol we showed you know and to not give up on a game to continue to believe in what we what we can do with the

Three-point shooting we have out there with the lineup that we put out there and um you know that they never quit mindset is that way that be a season changing you guys sping in the right direction you know I I wouldn’t go that far you know I mean I think it’s it’s

One of one of the successes that we’ve had that’s going to build uh you know build us going in a positive direction build our confidence and um in in one another and this group being together for the first first year together but uh you know it’s definitely uh definitely

Confidence booster you look at the Pelicans and their size especially the starting lineup that guys like to run out their size has been disadvantage but how do you kind of look at this particular match yeah they gotta guard us you know they create some problems for sure with matchups and whatnot you

Know and uh it’s something we we’ve talked at length about but um you know with all these things you know we got a an offensive lineup That is equally as challenging to guard is it gratifying when you kind of you’ve been preaching like we time together we raps get like

Healthy now that you’re seeing it and seeing the lineup data yeah and I I honestly don’t even think we we’ve scratched the surface yet of you know what we’re ultimately going to be hopefully the you know the last few weeks of the regular season going into the playoffs you know we’re going

To continue to to tweak and evaluate um with uh with our roster okay and different Personnel uh but with how we’re using you know those guys as well and um you know I just think there’s a there’s a growth mindset with this group that is really healthy and really

Positive and um we’re off to a a pretty good start you know from a standpoint of these guys playing together healthy and uh hopefully it continues to grow yeah it’s still a work in progress you know still imperfect but you know a lot of positives comfortable specific moving it around way well I

Mean there’s there’s a lot of actions right we have you know book and Brad are are are handling than that as as primary ball handlers um you know but in flow anybody can bring it you know even even our Center at that time we’re going to

Bring it and get into dho type of action you know that’s how we want to attack early in the clock um you know so it’s uh it’s coming along coach obviously those last five that you put out last game a lot of people talk about offense and I talk a lot about

Youens that yeah I thought all five really competed at a high level you know Eric Gordon has some switch outs had some one-on-one plays Grayson had some hellacious uh blocks inside and and Steals and U book and Brad are flying around out there so I mean there was a

High level competitive exp with uh some big- time athleticism you know not the biggest group but um high IQ guys and um guys can get the job done so I loved how they competed the Pelicans have basically wred their ship ever since that inseason tournament loss to the

Lakers and you guys are doing the same right after Christmas so what can you see for similarities difference between their big three colum Zion and Ingram as well as your big yeah I mean they’re also eight and three in their last 11 you know they’re playing really good

Basketball made 25 threes last night against Charlotte and um you know if uh Brandon Ingram’s gonna make seven threes you know with with everything else that he can do they’re uh you know they’re a legit team they’re big time and uh real concerned they’re I would say they’re

Further along and they’re a continuity than we are and their system because they’ve been together longer you know but um you know like our chances against anyone but they’re they’re playing great basketball just want to ask I know that Frank beening lot of season that’s something

You’ve been doing a lot but now that you have big three healthy you out there with them how do you like the look to initiate more than just kind of Point um yeah I think it’s really dangerous um I think most of the time it’s when we’re

Trying to push the tempo on makes and misses it’s really whoever’s closest is going to bring it up and we can kind of flow into different spots and it makes it a lot tougher for the defense um you know we’re not coming down into the same alignment each time especially when

They’re they’re trying to guard uh the four of us out there each each player a little bit differently so we just flow into different spots and flow into our offense makes it a lot tougher today you’re the league leader in percentage you given any thought what do it mean to be

In um I haven’t uh I haven’t thought much about it uh you know I haven’t the like lead leaguing and uh leading the league in three-point percentage I haven’t like really been paying attention to much and um I was just talking to my wife the other day about planning our All-Star

Break like not even thinking about uh that being a possibility but you know for now we’re we’re planning to get a nice vacation in so we’ll see if you did get the invite which put your vacation plans on hold yeah I would I would consider it yeah it’s yeah it

Is become kind of an identity for this team or is that something that um I think both I think a lot of it can be matchup dependent um you know if you get good enough at something you force the other team to adjust um and change the way they’re playing but um

Last game so much of our success in being able to do that was because of KD and his defense and you know he might be dead tired if you ask him to do that for 48 minutes the way he was out there switching and guarding the post getting

Blocks deflection steals but um he was so great the fourth quarter and that’s really what allowed us to go to that smaller lineup and offensively because we were getting stops we had five Shooters out there we were able to get up a lot of threes and make that come back uh

Quicker if you had to uh ditch the allstar vacation with your wife be on board with that yeah I think she would I think she would she would think it would be cool to go to the three-point Conta you’ve got quite a few games this year where you’ve had two plus blocks

Was your New Year’s resolution to become like the next coming of the or uh more like uh Dwayne Wade yeah more like Dwayne Wade uh I think a lot of it is um you know a lot of it has been like upside and off the ball and you know

Coming over and when the bigs or whoever’s down there kind of thinks they have an open layup catch them by surprise um so hopefully I can keep that up because right now I’m at a career high pace for actually do have it’s crazy do you think people forget

That the defensive poow from or even attacking the hole from your Duke days just because it’s been you know years since you’ve been you know coming out of the Brotherhood yeah I mean it’s always uh it’s always funny when I get around people that haven’t like haven’t

Seen me play in other scenarios because if you just like if you’re not watching every single game like of course you just you’re GNA think that I’m shooting threes because that’s what I do best and that’s threes are probably 70% of my shots um but I was a driver Coach K told

Me at Duke I needed to be more of a driver than a shooter and I had a ton of success to that in college um so I I think I still can catch people off guard and it’s probably a strength now that it’s kind of secondary to three-point

Shooting because now when I when I do drive it most people either aren’t expecting it so makes it a little easier yeah your driver numbers are up basically this year compared to the past two years in Milwaukee where Kevin said that sometimes as play you have to sacrifice your own assets or attributes

In order to benefit somebody else you think that’s the case with you yeah it’s a little bit different in style of play um you know we have four or five Shooters spacing the floor and we’re getting in the drive and kick like you can get multiple drives in multiple

Actions multiple kick um when you’re playing with Yannis uh 70 80% of the time they’re already going to have five people in the paint because of Giannis so if you pass up a three and drive it you’re not going to go anywhere um drop yeah and there’s already four

People Giannis collaps five people to the paint like you don’t need to re attack that um so most of the time you’re going to be in a position where you have to shoot it so naturally playing with him you’re going to drive the ball less um but with us we’re

Getting a lot of kick ahead so I’m able to drive that transition a lot of That Swing Swing where I’m attacking a close out um and in the last Mark show getting run off the three-point line a little bit more say told you you needed baset yeah

What was his reason uh this my freshman sophomore year when I first got there uh he just thought that I was like what I was best at then was tacking downhill getting to the room U being aggressive and using my athleticism at the room to finish and um

Like when I came off the bench in the national championship game or that stretch uh in the second half of the Season like that’s what I mainly did what I was really successful at my sophomore year um driving was what opened up everything else it was Drive

First they respect the drive then you shoot the three um and then over the next two years it kind of developed into by the time I was a senior he was like okay now I need to take a ton of Threes we got uh Marvin and Wendell down there in the paint

Uh it’s going to be a little crowded and those guys are going to be really good off the post so we need shooting around there we to see smack the floor H it would take a lot for that to happen we getting that time of year where the trade rumors are kinding

Around your name recently or not of course how do you handle hearing your um I think my my name has been and some someone’s tweet every year since I’ve been in the league so um I hardly pay any attention to it uh usually it brings a smile to my face because it’s a

Little funny but uh I’ve I’ve loved playing here this season I love playing with this team uh I don’t want to be traded so not not worried about it is it flattering at all when you hear name continually come up uh usually it means someone else wants

You hopefully that’s the case and it’s not the team you’re playing for once to get rid of you so it can be a little flattery uh about the crowd I didn’t see the reaction I was hoping I worded it well so it was taken the right way um it

Was coming from a good place and I wasn’t really thought out so uh I assume that I didn’t say it as well as I possibly could um the gist of it is that like of course they can come and cheer boo however they want um but when we’re

Out there we are giving effort like we’re not trying to play bad it’s not a lack of effort thing um and when you see when whever we’re playing bad and you see guys on the bench trying to encourage each other um all I’m saying is that it helps if the fans are also

Encouraging and not booing at home court um and then when we have times where we went on run like that was like a top five regular season crowd in the fourth quarter that I’ve ever been a part of like that was it was so loud in there

And that’s for being a really good home court team um it takes the crowd like the crowd does help in the game and so all I was trying to say is that they can help they don’t have to but they can if they want to um

I think so um you know we are we’re tring in the right direction so going into a game where you are tring in the right direction you know we feel like we’re starting to click and then you go down 20 so if that game were to end down

20 it could have been a you know a little bit of a step back for us but um you know we showed a lot of resilience in the fourth and it was our first time this season really making a huge comeback like that and I think that’s

Something big to build off and gives you that belief in games where you get down 10 or 15 sometimes you’re playing bad sometimes other team just makes a ton of shots and you get down um so now when we’re in that situation we know we can put up points

Quickly you have when you’re down that one possession at a time the back uh it’s definitely one possession and a lot of all of our runs start with getting stops um like we we created a bunch of turnovers in the fourth deflections blocks um um and being able

To get out and run and creating an advantage offensively where we can pass the ball around and hit some threes um you know you kind of think of like the best marker of that in the last 10 years is like those Golden State teams he like if they hang around they’re going to

Have their 105 Point explosion if you go up 1015 against them they can hit four threes and be right back into it right so um but that starts with getting stops for us and we have the Firepower out there though it’s so make threes at a high rate thank you

Head Coach Frank Vogel and Grayson Allen speak to the media on January 18th, 2024 after Phoenix Suns practice.

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